A Thousand Years of Solitude
by Lexarius
Summary: A chance encounter in the loneliest place imaginable. Two teenagers who know about loneliness. (on hiatus)
1. Adrift

**_A Thousand Years of Solitude_**

* * *

 ** _Note_** _, the parenthesis indicate languages other than Japanese, several, but self-explanatory. Most dialogue here will be in English._ _  
_ _Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it)._

* * *

A white void.  
Nothing else.  
All around him, for as far as he could see.

Just a few bits of random debris, nothing really interesting.

He had been trapped in this damned white nothingness for a long time. It was torture of the worst kind.

If he could, he would weep bitter tears. But even that small relief was denied to him.

Suddenly, he felt a wave, or maybe a tremor. The young man turned around, looking for the disturbance.

He found something in the distance. It was hard to judge distances here, but he saw a figure. A humanoid figure. Floating in the distance.

The young man felt a small spark of hope.

Company!

He also felt a stab of regret. Having company meant somebody else had been condemned to this Hell.

He willed to move towards the figure. It took him a long time to get close.

It was incredibly big. It looked like a giant robot. But instead of a hulking monstruosity, it was sleek, lean, and its horned helmet had an angry snarl on its face.

For a moment, sadness invaded Lar Gand's face. It was just a machine...

He was about to turn back, when the robot moved its head, looking at him.

It spoke, its voice was timid and fearful. Lar froze. If that was a robot, it wasn't a mere automaton. Although he didn't recognize the language, he knew the emotion.

"(Um... Hello?)" he responded. "(Do you speak Interlac?) The robot shook his head. Well, its voice sounded like a teenage male, at least. Lar tried other languages. "(Thanagarian? Daxamite? Dominarum? ...Khundi?)" he switched to the languages of other space-faring races, including his own. Somehow, the robot looked sad and dejected. Then Lar noticed the text on the arms. "EVA-01 Test Type.", Terran script!

"(Do you speak English?)" Lar asked, finally. The robot's head shot up in alert.

"(A little. Yes. I learned some at school.") The voice sounded relieved. "(I am Shinji Ikari. Nice to meet you.)"

"(Glad to meet you too, Shinji Ikari. I am Lar Gand, also known as Valor." he waved at the robot. "(How did you get sent into the Phantom Zone?)"

The robot floated, immobile. "(I don't know. EVA-01 was swallowed by an Angel's shadow, I came along for the ride, I guess.)"

The next few hours passed too fast for Lar. Both young men thought they would stay here forever, but at least they had company. They spoke about their lifes, their friends, and how they came to be here. Neither had deserved it. Lar told Shinji about how he came to Earth, his adventures with other young heroes, his friends. Finally, he told him he was dying, a victim of lead poisoning. His race, the Daxamites, were particularly vulnerable to it, and he was about to die when a friend saved him by sending him to the Phantom Zone, that had been... years ago. He had no way to measure time here, but according to Shinji, it had been about... eighnteen years!

Shinji told about his life as an EVA pilot, his lonely childhood, how he could not understand women, especially Asuka Langley Soryu. His friends at school.

They found both had an strained relationship with their respective fathers, especially Shinji. At least Lar had some good memories of his father, although they hadn't parted in the best terms. Both wanted to know they had made their fathers proud, but they hadn't had that.

They spoke about their hobbies, Lar's love for strategy games and gardening, Shinji about music and cooking. For a moment, Shinji felt ashamed of himself, his hesitation gave him away. "(In my planet,") Lar smiled, "(music is highly praised, and a man who can't cook for himself and his family is pitied. You, my friend, would be a prize catch in Daxam. Be proud of what you can do.)" He wanted to add, ' _Look for a girl who can appreciate that_ ', but it would be a hollow advice, at best, considering their current predicament.

After a long time talking, Shinji fell silent. For a moment, Lar kept quiet.

"(...Sorry...)" Shinji's voice sounded sleepy, tired. "(...I think... ...I think my... ...life support is... ...failing...)" his voice trailed off, as if he had fallen asleep. A chill seized Lar's spine. _'No! It cannot be! No, please!_ " Meeting a friend in this waste only to lose him after so short a while would be the cruelest fate imaginable!

"(Shinji! SHINJI!)" No response.

Lar screamed into the void. A scream of solitude, of despair.

Somehow, the EVA Unit responded. An angry growl at first. The growl turned into a roar, like a wounded beast. Its eyes flared with a white light, its fingers extended like claws.

Lar floated back, surprised by his friend's fury. "(Sh-Shinji? Are you okay?)"

There was no answer.

Not in words, at least.

EVA-01 looked around, its movements completely bestial, Lar couldn't imagine Shinji moving like that. The robot's eyes narrowed for a moment, as if it was trying to remember something. It nodded at Lar. And it roared again, the small spark of intelligence completely lost.

The robot's hands shot into the void, the fingers disappeared into... Something. There was something there! EVA-01 pulled. A red sphere came from nowhere!

EVA squeezed the sphere until it cracked, and the shards exploded into the void.

Once again, its throat growled like an animal. Its hands disappeared into the void, and pulled, until something in the fabric of the void ripped.

It was opening it's own exit!

Lar looked at the scene with wide eyes, floating immobile in the void. The rip was getting wider, and he could see buildings at the other side! There was a city right outside!

EVA-01 stuck its head through the hole, and roared triumphantly. To Lar's surprise, the Evangelion fell through the rip. He reacted, following it outside.

EVA-01 fell limply to the ground, like a puppet withouth strings. Lar's powers kicked in as soon as he was back into the real world. He caught the robot, and put it down softly. All around him, a cascade of blood poured from a strange form in the air, it seemed like a balloon, white inside, black outside.

He had barely time to land, when he felt the fever hit. He had, at best, 20, maybe 30 minutes to live. The pain was agonizing.

Before losing consciousnes, he felt a big hand around him. The robot growled again. Was it trying... to speak?

"(Live... Wait. ...Help... Soon.)"

Lar was too weak to do anything. EVA-01 threw him back into the sphere, back into the Phantom Zone.

EVA-01 fell silent, and relaxed. Its body fell on the ground, completely still.

* * *

 _ **Author Notes**_

Originally, I had planned to use this scene for Stranger Visitations, but it clashed with some of my plans; so I decided to gave it a chance to be on its own.

* * *

I have always thought that Mon-El had one of the cruelest origins in comics, being basically sentenced to spend a millenium in the Phantom Zone without any fault of his own. Pre-Crisis, at least he had some company, even if they were the worse criminals in Krypton.

But the Post-Crisis version? There was no one there! He spent ten centuries completely alone. It's a wonder he didn't go completely crazy. Just for that, he has always been one of my favorite heroes, especially the Reboot version, M'Onel.

* * *

A little personal touch. It always irks me how in fiction, the words for both peoples and languages are always derived from their planets or countries of origin by just adding 'ian' at the end.

So, anytime I have the chance, I will be creating words to that effect. For example, instead of Khundian, for the Khund language, I'll use 'Khundi'. It is still recognizable, but distinct. (of course, I might not be aware if there is already a name for language/people. If there is, please give me reference and I'll correct it. As long as it doesn't end with 'ian', of course)


	2. Dreams

**Dreams**

* * *

 _ **Note**_ _, the parenthesis indicate languages other than Japanese, in this case, Daxamite and Interlac.  
Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it)._

* * *

"(Back in the Phantom Zone...)" Lar Gand sighed. He felt a mix of relief, anger, sadness and dread.

As far as he knew, Shinji was safe. They had talked just for a few hours, but those scant hours had been invaluable. Lar had already spent years of the worst isolation possible, and after all that time he felt starved for any stimuli. Having a friend, even for a few precious hours... that was a miracle.

The Phantom Zone was anything but... But anything. Just an infinite expanse of nothingness, and contained absolutely nothing but tedium.

By all the Gods... Even the pain of lead poisoning had been a welcome relief! His pain had ended once he was back in the Phantom Zone, but he already missed his friend.

It just wasn't fair!

He wished with all his heart he could talk to Shinji again. Lar didn't even had any idea of how the teenage pilot looked. Lar shook his head.

"(There must be a way!)" He screamed at the empty infinite, had there been something solid, he would have hit it until he broke it or was himself broken. He felt angry enough to break reality itself.

Something brushed against his back. He turned around, and saw some of the debris that had come into the Phantom Zone along with the purple Evangelion.

It was a newspaper. He examined it with curiosity. He could not make sense of the strange characters that covered the paper in neat vertical lines, so he focused in the pictures. Of course, he couldn't recognize anybody. According to Shinji, he wasn't anywhere near any place on Earth he had been. _(Grife!)_ He wasn't even in the same dimension! Shinji was sure people on his world didn't have any powers. And never had.

The way he described his world didn't coincide with what Lar knew of Earth. Sure, things could change a lot in less than two decades, but forgetting all the colorful superpowered people? That was too hard to believe.

Lar spent about two hours looking at the paper, turning pages and avidly looking at the pictures. Some accompanied the news, others were advertising diverse products.

Once he finished, the young Daxamite looked around, searching for more debris from Shinji's world. His powers worked erratically in a place without any object to act upon, so he wasn't sure his telescopic vision would even work; but with a little mental push, it kicked in. He realized then that the newspaper had felt solid to him! He was so focused on examining it he hadn't thought of what being able to touch it meant.

It meant he had work to do! Something else than thinking, than being miserable, than going slowly mad.

Soon, he was busy collecting all kind of objects that had fallen into the Phantom Zone from Tokyo-3. He used ropes and chains to loosely link several buildings.

He thanked the Gods he didn't find any corpses... "(I guess the evacuation drills did work.)"

Most buildings were corporate offices, but a couple were apartment buildings. At first, he felt like a grave robber, a scavenger... But then again, wasn't he less than a ghost? Anyway, the people who worked or lived here were still alive on Earth, and he hoped they would be able to rebuild their lives.

He whispered a thankful prayer.

Lar worked long hours, collecting everything he could .

When he finally stopped, he looked at his treasure. A loose island of flotsam and jetsam, brought by chance.

A big smile parted his lips. He would have a lot of new things to relieve his boredom with.

He wished he still had his friend to talk to...

* * *

Once again, Shinji Ikari awoke in a hospital bed. Misato snored softly, draped over a chair. "She must be terribly tired to have fallen asleep there." He noticed one of her arms hanged limply over the arm of the chair.

He had a vague recollection of Misato trying to hug him to death. Shinji looked around, until he found a clock. "2:47 A.M." It read. It had no date. Just the time. "No Wonder everything's so quiet..."

Silently, he planted his feet on the cold floor. After a couple of tries, he found the slippers and slid his feet inside. As Misato kept snoring, Shinji took her wrist, and set her hand on her lap. Otherwise, her arm would hurt in the morning. Satisfied, then he went to the bathroom and relieved himself.

After washing his hands carefully, he opened the closet door, and retrieved a warm blanket. Tenderly, he covered Misato with it, tucking her like a child.

For a moment, he studied her face; even asleep, he could see the stress on her eyes. She mumbled something, and pulled the blanket tighter. He realized she was still sleeping, and smiled warmly at the woman who was his superior officer, his roomate, his guardian, his confidant; but above everything, his family. Not family by blood, as his own father was as far from being family as the Angels themselves were.

Shinji returned to the bed, and pulled his own blankets over him. He smiled warmly again, and went back to sleep.

He dreamt about another friend. A tall teenager, wearing a strange red suit with a blue cape. Who someway, came from another world.

* * *

Author Notes

Well.. my muse has granted me a second chapter of this story. I have some vague ideas on hot to go on, and this episode, short as it is, is kind of a proof of concept to set up the next step.

For the time being, the only DC character present inm the EVAverse will be M´onel. Although he won´t get that name until the XXXIst Century. His name will be Lar Gand for most of the story, although in some special occassions, he will be referred to as Valor.


End file.
